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Student survivors from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School are greeted as they arrive at a rally for gun control reform on the steps of the state capitol in Tallahassee, Fla. on Feb. 21. | Gerald Herbert/AP Photo

Why arming teachers is highly unlikely

President Donald Trump said Wednesday that the White House is “very strongly” considering the possibility of arming teachers and other school staff following the deadly Florida school shooting — but the reality is that won't happen any time soon, even in states that would allow guns in schools.

Lawmakers in at least half-a-dozen states — including Florida — are considering legislation this year that would ease restrictions on firearms on campus. But such attempts nearly always hit strong opposition from teachers and community members. Even in states that have passed laws allowing school districts to make the decision, few school boards have bit.

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“The vast majority of schools superintendents and boards don't even blink before saying, ‘Thanks but no thanks,’” said Kenneth Trump, a school safety consultant not related to the president. “We know that by and large there’s mass opposition to this in the education community.”

President Trump acknowledged it’s a controversial idea, but said: “We’re going to be looking at it very strongly.”

“If you had a teacher who was adept at firearms, they could very well end the attack very quickly,” Trump said during a meeting at the White House with students and parents from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, where a gunman murdered 17 people last week. “I really believe if these cowards knew that the school was well guarded. … I think they wouldn’t go into the school to start off with, it could very well solve your problem.”

One of the parents at the White House session suggested the idea of arming teachers and other school staff, an idea the parent said was discussed with Education Secretary Betsy DeVos at lunch.

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But education groups are virtually unanimously opposed to the idea, which they say is asking teachers and principals to do too much.

“This is bar none, the worst theory of action I’ve ever heard,” Shanna Peeples, a former National Teacher of the Year award winner, wrote on Twitter.

In the days since the Florida tragedy, conservative commentators like Rush Limbaugh and Newt Gingrich as well as some Republican state lawmakers have said teachers, principals and staff should be allowed to bring guns to school. That way, they could theoretically defend themselves and students during a school shooting, conservatives say.

Trump on Wednesday also voiced his distaste for gun-free zones. The federal Gun-Free School Zones Act currently bans possessing a firearm in a school zone. Trump said: “Gun-free zone to a maniac — because they’re all cowards — a gun-free zone is, ‘Let’s go in and lets attack, because bullets aren’t coming at us.’”

The federal law has a big omission: It doesn’t apply to people licensed by a state or locality to possess a gun on school campuses, an exception that applies to many people allowed to carry concealed firearms, according to the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence advocacy group.

Lawmakers in dozens of states, meanwhile, have sought to ease restrictions on firearms in K-12 schools — including at least six states so far this year, according to the Education Commission of the States. Among those states is Florida, which is considering allowing some trained school staff to carry concealed weapons on campus to respond to an active shooter. At least seven states allow teachers, in some capacity, to carry guns on public school grounds, according to the commission.

Education groups argue that schools should instead invest in more school resource officers — trained law enforcement officers who can more effectively respond in a crisis. They believe that having guns in a classroom makes that classroom less safe and that having teachers potentially carrying guns will only make a school shooting more confusing for police trying to stop it.

“There is not a schools person I know who would make this case in any credible manner,” said Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers. “Anyone who suggests this has no real understanding of what goes on in schools, or worse doesn’t care, and is more focused on the needs of gun manufacturers and the NRA than of children.”

“You’re asking the teacher to have the presence of mind to not only do what her instincts compel her to do, but then find her loaded handgun and get in position … and be a good enough shot — in the middle of all of this — so that she can be the marksperson who then maims or kills the intruder with the rifle,” Weingarten said. “That may work on a movie, but in real life that is not a situation that most people will — even those who have been trained — will be able to do.”

The two main groups representing school principals are “absolutely opposed” to the idea, said Bob Farrace, a spokesman for two associations of K-12 principals.

“Even the slightest hope of saving lives bumps up against another well-researched reality: gun-related violent behavior is closely connected to local access to guns,” the groups said in a statement after the 2012 school shooting at Sandy Hook. “If we increase the number of guns in schools — no matter how carefully we safeguard them — we can expect an increase in gun violence.”

The National Association of School Resource Officers is likewise opposed to the idea.

“We think that teachers should be in the school to teach kids and not have to worry about the responsibilities and the liabilities of carrying a gun and being expected to use it in that situation,” said Mac Hardy, director of operations at the association.